The 2001 Census of Population and Housing provides information on the number and characteristics of people aged 15 years and over whose main job in the week prior to the census was in a cultural occupation. People who had unpaid involvement in cultural activities, or who worked part time in cultural activities but had another job they regarded as their main job in the week prior to the census, would not be recorded in the census as being in cultural occupations.

The 2001 census found 259,909 people (3.1% of all employed persons) worked in a cultural occupation. This was a 13.3% increase from 1996, when 229,330 people had their main job in a cultural occupation, and compares with an 8.7% increase for all occupations. In 2001, 56.1% of all people employed in cultural occupations as their main job were males and 43.9% were females. In 1996 the percentage who were females was slightly lower at 42.8%.

Table 12.28 shows the number and sex of people who were recorded as having a main job in selected cultural occupations in the 2001 Census of Population and Housing. The ten occupations shown are those in which the highest numbers of people were employed.

Cultural work is often intermittent, unpaid or not a person's main job. Therefore, in order to obtain a more complete picture of cultural work, the ABS conducted a household survey in 2004 to measure all involvement over a 12-month period.

During the 12 months prior to interview in April 2004, an estimated 2.9 million people (18.4% of the Australian population aged 15 years and over) were involved in some form of paid or unpaid work relating to the culture and leisure activities covered in the survey. The Australian Capital Territory had the highest participation rate for work in culture and leisure activities (29.4%), and this was significantly higher than the participation rate for Australia as a whole (18.4%) (table 12.29). The Australian Capital Territory also had the highest proportion of paid involvement, with 42.0% of those involved in culture and leisure activities receiving some payment. The involvement figures exclude hobby activities (i.e. involvement solely for the person's own use or that of their family).

The overall number of people involved in work in culture and leisure activities increased by 376,000 between 2001 and 2004, with unpaid involvement accounting for the majority of this increase (318,400). The state with the largest overall increase in involvement was New South Wales, where involvement grew by 182,100 and the participation rate increased by 2.9 percentage points to 17.8%.

(a) Excludes persons whose involvement was solely as a hobby for their own use or that of their family.(b) Includes persons who only received payment in kind. Of the 957,500 people who received some payment, 108,800 (11.0%) only received payment in kind.(c) The number of persons who reported working in the selected culture or leisure activities, expressed as a percentage of the civilian population in the same group.(d) Refers to mainly urban areas only.

Source: Work in Selected Culture and Leisure Activities, Australia, April 2004 (6281.0).

The 2004 survey found that more people had paid involvement in design (239,100), writing (185,500) and visual art activities (183,100) than in any other culture or leisure activities included in the survey. The previous survey in April 2001 had similar findings except that writing had the highest level of paid involvement (214,800) followed by design with 210,700 and visual art activities with 175,800. Of the 370,200 people involved in design in 2004, 65.4% received some payment. This was the highest percentage with paid involvement for any culture or leisure activity included in the survey, and was followed by television for which 63.8% of the 76,200 people involved were paid. Of people involved in writing, 35.5% received payment while for visual art activities, the equivalent figure was 23.5%.

According to the General Social Survey, conducted by the ABS in 2002, 23% of adults participated in church or religious activities during the three months prior to interview. Women (26%) were more likely than men (20%) to have participated in church or religious activities. This pattern was evident among all age groups. As with religious affiliation, participation in church or religious activities tended to increase with age. Among 18-24 year olds, 23% of women and 16% of men had participated in church or religious activities. Rates for people 65 years and over were higher at 29% for women and 24% for men. Information about religious affiliation can be found in Religious affiliation.

The 2002 General Social Survey found that, during the 12 months prior to interview, religious organisations received unpaid help from 1,114,400 volunteers aged 18 years and over, of whom 56.9% were female. These volunteers for religious organisations constituted 7.7% of the adult population. South Australia was the state with the highest rate of volunteering for religious organisations - 8.3% of the adult population. There were 334,300 people who undertook voluntary work for arts and culture organisations, and this figure was 2.3% of the adult population. Of these arts and culture volunteers, 53.3% were female. The highest rate of volunteering for arts and culture organisations - 3.8% of the adult population - occurred in the Australian Capital Territory. For both religious and arts and culture organisations, the rate of volunteering was slightly lower in the capital cities overall than it was in the balance of the states. The General Social Survey found the highest levels of volunteering were for organisations categorised as sport, recreation and hobby (1.8 million volunteers), welfare and community (1.6 million) and education, training and youth development (1.2 million).

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